GOVERNMENT CENTER, PALO, Leyte-Anti-drug elements of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, together with the Eastern Samar Police Provincial Office and Provincial Anti-Drug Enforcement Unit, arrested a minor during the conduct of a buy-bust operation in Barangay Bato, Borongan City on August 17, 2018 at around 12:30 noon.
Purchased and confiscated during the said operation was one piece of a heat-sealed transparent plastic sachet containing suspected dried marijuana weighing 0.5 gram with an estimated market value of P60.
The suspect was charged for violation of Section 5 (sale of dangerous drugs), Article II of RA 9165 and is now at the custody of DSWD Borongan City. (PR)

TACLOBAN CITY – Local government units in the region should activate their respective dengue brigade.
This call of the Department of Health (DOH) came in the wake of several local government units declaring a state of emergency due to outbreak of dengue virus.
Based on the records of the DOH, among the localities that declared their areas under state of calamity or emergency were Baybay City, Hilongos, both in Leyte; Salcedo, Quinapondan and Hernani, all in Eastern Samar.
“These shows that the mosquito density carrying dengue is high. The local government units must activate their dengue brigades as a preventive and aggressive campaign to destroy all breeding areas of dengue carrying mosquitoes,” Roderick Boyd Cerro, chief of the regional epidemiology and surveillance unit of the DOH-8, said.
Cerro asked the people in the communities to seek for early consultation for early detection and to avoid deaths due to dengue and wear long sleeves, pants and application of mosquito repellents to protect them from being bitten by mosquitoes.
For local government units that will conduct fogging operations, they should be supervised with technical personnel and with proper timing because of the chemicals used which are harmful to health.
Dengue cases were also reported in the cities of Tacloban, Ormoc, Maasin, and Catbalogan as well as in the towns of Cabucgayan, Biliran; Daram and Matuguinao, both in Samar; Mercedes in Eastern Samar.
Aside from dengue, mosquitoes also transmits Chikungunya virus.
Outbreak of the disease were reported in some villages in towns of San Jorge and Tarangnan and Calbayog City, all in Samar province; San Roque, Northern Samar; and in Maripipi, Biliran.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)

BY: EDUARDO ERIC M. MIRANDA

DULAG, Leyte- The community as well as the whole Teaching Force of Camitoc Elementary School (CES), Dulag North District, this town headed by its school head Mr. Eduardo Eric M. Miranda have been very grateful and appreciative of the good news about a new school building for this school.
Fortunately, CES has been chosen to be a recipient of a new 2-Classroom, 1-Unit Building from the Department of Education (DepEd) – Leyte Division and implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) at the start of the year.
The construction of the new building started last January and finished only last July this year.
Presently, one of the rooms of the newly -constructed building is now being used by the Kindergarten Class.
The school has now a total of 7 classrooms, all of which are in good conditions.
(Note: The author is the school head of the Camitoc Elementary School of Dulag North District in Dulag, Leyte)

NAVAL, Biliran- Due to several complains about the P6,000 tuition fee being reflected in billing statements, Dr. Victor C. Canezo, president of the Naval State University (NSU), reiterated that students do not need to shell out cash as payment for tuition and miscellaneous fees for the first semester of the school year 2018-2019.
Canezo made this clarification in a phone-patch interview during the Pulong-Pulong ng Bayan, a regular radio program of the Philippine Information Agency – Biliran.
He said that the amount was reflected in the billing statement because it is built-in in their computer system as the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has not downloaded yet to the University the fund intended for the students’ tuition fees.
He made this clarification for students, parents and benefactors, that they may not worry nor spend additional funds for their college fees because this is a special program of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte which declares it free for all.
However, Canezo advised parents, students, and their benefactors to verify with the accounting section for unpaid tuition fees in the previous semesters as same may not be covered under the new program.
The Naval State University is the only state university in the province of Biliran catering to more than 8,000 students from laboratory high school, undergraduate school of more than 30 courses, and graduate school. (PIA8-Biliran)

TACLOBAN CITY-More than 40 years of waiting is now over for the 457 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program(CARP) in the provinces of Leyte and Southern Leyte as they received their certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) on Friday(August 17).
DAR Secretary John R. Castriciones, as he promised, issued the 429 Certificates of Landownership Award (CLOAs) to the 457 ARBs, effectively transferring to them the ownership of the 638.30 hectares of land in provinces of Leyte-Biliran and Southern Leyte.
“We will intensify the CLOA distribution and the provision of support services to the ARBs in the country to support the thrust of the administration of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to emancipate farmers, especially those in the far-flung villages living below the poverty level,” Castriciones said.
He emphasized that President Rodrigo Duterte has also mandated the DAR to boost the provision of support services to the ARBs to develop the lands awarded to them.
Castriciones urged the farmer-beneficiaries not to sell or lease the newly acquired lands, but instead utilize these to generate income.
He said the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law or Republic Act No. 6657, prohibits the sale or lease of lands covered by the CLOA for at least 10 years.
DAR-Tacloban Legal Division Chief Atty. Daniel E. Pen reminded the farmers of their rights, duties, and responsibilities.
He warned the farmers that there are violations that will result to disqualifications or cancellations of their land titles issued to them if they failed to do their responsibilities as landowners.
Pen encouraged the farmers to take good care of the lands awarded to them and to refrain from doing what is prohibited under the law, like leasing and selling the land.
San Isidro Leyte ARB Rosalina M. Fajardo, as well as the other CLOA recipients,expressed happiness and their gratitude to President Duterte and to the DAR for the chance of personally claiming their CLOAs.
The distribution of CLOAs was also attended by DAR- 8 Regional Director Shiela B. Enciso, Registry of Deeds (ROD) Atty. Emeterio Villanoza, Land Bank-AOC Manger Fiel Pedrosa, Department of Environment and Natural Resources Assistant Regional Director Morakie P. Domanday, DAR Central Office Legal Service/PAMRS Director Resty C. Osias, ARDA Ma. Fe D. Malinao, ARD Ismael P. Aya-ay and officials from the Leyte-Biliran and Southern Leyte Provincial and Municipal offices. (PR)

GOVERNMENT CENTER,PALO, Leyte — The regional office of the Department of Health (DOH) is monitoring measles cases in San Roque, Northern Samar amid reports that a child died from the said ailment.
Roderick Boyd Cerro, chief of the DOH regional epidemiology and surveillance unit, said that they are still waiting for the confirmation of blood tests from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City to find out if the one-year-old child really contracted measles.
Two other family members, aged 10 and 14, also suffered from measles symptoms such as mild to moderate fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes, rashes, and sore throat last week.
“Clinically, it shows that the child died of measles last week, but we are still waiting for the confirmation from the RITM,” Cerro said.
If RITM confirms that the cause of death is measles, the DOH will consider the case in San Roque town as an outbreak, according to Cerro.
“We will categorize it as an outbreak because we already had immunization activities with the goal to achieve zero deaths from measles,” Cerro said.
Children should receive at least two measles immunization shots to boost their immune system against the viral disease.
The government has been implementing the massive immunization program targeting children ages six months to five years old.
Many parents, however, refused government vaccines due to fears caused by Dengvaxia controversy last year.
The DOH has reiterated its call to support the government’s immunization program this year that will benefit 213,717 children in the region.
The health department has been conducting its regular mass vaccination to combat polio, measles, tetanus, meningitis, diphtheria, and tuberculosis.
The immunization program targets 129,370 children 0 to 12 years old and 84,347 Grades 1 to 7 school children in the region.
The DOH pushed for vaccination noting that in the past two years, there are still confirmed cases of fatal diseases preventable by vaccines. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)